Sotto Group

Established in 2007, Sotto Group is owned by David Earle – designer, engineer and longtime bike enthusiast. David has extensive experience in mechanical design, linkage systems, drive systems, analysis, and manufacturing.

Sotto Group specializes in mechanical design and intellectual property development. In the bicycle industry Sotto is well known for its expertise in suspension system development, frame design, and drivetrain component design. Sotto Group has patents granted on suspension systems, drive train parts and mechanisms. Sotto Group develops intellectual property internally and for customers as requested.

Sotto Group has done work in several other industries. Wind power generation, electric motorcycles, shoe design, tool design, trap design, and mounting systems are all areas we have experience in.

Sotto Group also offers sourcing to its customers. With offices in USA and Taiwan we have extensive manufacturing contacts in Asia. From prototyping to production runs in the millions Sotto Group can find a solution

Sotto Group offers a full range of product design and engineering services ranging from FEA to conceptual ID development. While we specialize in things with two wheels, Sotto Group has done projects ranging from shoes to windmill turbines and gopher traps.

Design + Engineering

Design

Stress Analysis

Design

Sotto Group offers a full range of product design and engineering services.

From FEA to conceptual ID design development. While specializing in things with two wheels, Sotto group has done projects ranging from shoes to windmill turbines and gopher traps.

Stress Analysis

Illustrated are a few pictures of our Finite Element Analysis work. We have been very successful performing FEA on frames, components, and even wheels.

We utilize PTC analysis products such as Pro/Mechanica, Pro/E Behavioral Modeling, and Pro/E Mechanism Dynamics to analyze and optimize designs.

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Suspension

Suspension Design

Suspension Kinematics

Suspension Design

Sotto Group is an industry leader when it comes to suspension design of two wheel vehicles, especially when complex linkages are involved.

Utilizing several different software packages as well as internally developed systems, Sotto Group has developed some of the best platforms in the bike industry.

Suspension Kinematics

Suspension kinematic development, analysis, and design is something Sotto specializes in. David Earle is considered one of the best in the industry, as seen from the success of Switch system, Sine System and pioneering VPP at Santa Cruz.

Sotto has worked in almost every possible suspension system on the market - Switch, VPP, Dual Short Link, Horst Link, Faux Bar, Eccentric Links, Single pivot.Not only bikes, motorcycles also.ffer solutions.

Suspension Systems

IAS

OIC

RDP

SPPS/SPT

Switch/Sine

Turntable

IAS

IAS offers a single pivot solution that is incredibly stiff and has a tunable shock rate.

Simple single pivots with no linkage suffer from not enough stiffness due to a single point of attachment between the front and rear triangle. They also are limited to simple linear shock rates. Introducing a link into a single pivot (Fauxbar Systems) can allow for specific tuning of the shock rate, however stiffness is often further compromised due to the location of pivots near the rear hub.

AIS System offers full triangulation of the rear triangle, and a linkage controlled shock. Full triangulation delivers high stiffness, while a linkage controlled shock means highly tunable shock rate for increased performance in all travel ranges.

OIC

OIC is a Dual Link design. It offers highly neutral and efficient pedaling characteristics. Shock rates are tuned to work well with both air and coil shocks.

The patented technology employs antiquate characteristics and braking anti-dive characteristics that change linearly and on the same slope thus giving a highly predictable squat and brake response.

The OIC design is non-infringing on the popular US 7,128,329 B2 patent.

OIC is offered though Apro Cycles and is currently available in 4.0", 6.0", and 160mm 650B versions versions.

RDP

RDP system is a highly tuned version of Horst link system offering better pedaling characteristics without sacrificing any bump performance.

It provides for all the same benefits of Horst link. Tunable shock-rate, tunable wheel travel path, tunable anti-squat and anti-dive characteristics.

RDP is offered though Apro Cycles.

Currently available designs in 4.0in and 6.0 and 7.5/8.5in versions.

SPPS/SPT

SPPS and SPT are a family of systems. They are both single pivot and both have a shared pivot between the main pivot and the lower shock pivot. The two differ in that SPPS uses a PULL shock and SPT uses a PUSH shock.

The SPPS pull shock offers the additional advantage of pulling up on the bottom bracket area when the rear suspension is compressed and the shock is activated. This upward force counteracts the downward force of the rider putting weight/G-Force on the pedals.

SPPS/SPT are patented systems.

The SPPS/SPT system is offered though Apro Cycles and currently available designs in 4.0″, 6.0″ and 7.5″ versions.

Switch/Sine

Please refer to the following links. A full technical explanation of the system will follow.

Turntable was developed to offer a single pivot solution that is incredibly stiff and have a tunable shock rate.

Simple single pivots with no linkage suffer from not enough stiffness due to a single point of attachment between the front and rear triangle. They also are limited to simple linear shock rates. Introducing a link into a single pivot (Fauxbar Systems) can allow for specific tuning of the shock rate however often stiffness is even further compromised due to the location of pivots near the rear hub.

Turntable offers potentially the stiffest single pivot platform on the market with a linkage controlled shock which allows us to tune shock rates for our customers individual riding preference.

Turntable is a trademarked and patented (US20110227312A1) technology available for license through Sotto Group.

Component Design

Sotto is well versed in component design. Specializing in drive train design, chainrings, cranks, BB systems are all things Sotto does well. In addition to Sotto, David Earle founded and runs Praxis Works

Wheel design is another specialty both in the areas of CFD and mechanical design.

Sourcing and Manufacturing support

Sotto Group can also offer sourcing to its customers. With offices in USA and Taiwan we can have extensive manufacturing contacts in Asia. From prototyping to production runs in the millions we can offer solutions.

Shown are a few pictures of our Finite Element Analysis work. We have been successful performing FEA on bicycle and motorcycle frames,components, and wheels.

We utilize PTC analysis products such as Pro/Mechanica, Pro/E Behavioral Modeling, and Pro/E Mechanism Dynamics to analyze and optimize designs.

Sotto has worked in almost every possible suspension system on the market - Switch, VPP, Dual Short Link, Horst Link, Faux Bar, Eccentric Links, and Single pivot. Sotto has worked on bikes, motorcycles and other vehicles, both on rear and front suspension.

Patents

The following patents are owned and licensed by Sotto Group.

In accordance with Section 287(a) of Title 35 of the United States Code, the reader is hereby placed on notice of Sotto’s rights in the United States Patents listed below and associated with the following products.

Switch/Yeti

US 8,066,297B2, US 8,201,841B2, US 8382136B2, PCT/US 2010/031640

Turntable

US20110227312A1

Sine

US 8,066,297B2, US 8,201,841B2, US 8382136B2, PCT/US 2010/031640

The following patents have been developed exclusively for Sotto’s customers: